For astronauts engaged in extravehicular activity in the space environment, it is necessary to provide protection against a variety of environmental hazards. The deployment of space stations and the prospect of long-term space missions including lunar base and planetary surface operations present additional and greater environmental hazards imposing greater and more stringent protection requirements. Accordingly, in the mission planning of such long-term space operations, special provisions must be made for chemical propellants protection, enhanced radiation shielding, electrostatic charge control, and in missions involving low earth orbit environments, protection against materials degradation from the erosive effects of atomic oxygen bombardment. In addition, because of the presence of orbital debris resulting from previous space vehicle launches and space missions, there must be increased protection against impacts.
Heretofore, space hazards protection has largely consisted of an integrated cover garment for space suits which provides protection against abrasion, sharp objects, thermal extremes, and impacts by micrometeoroids of a specified size range and limited mass flux density. While protection against many of the hazards to be encountered in space operations have been disclosed in the prior art, there is no single system which can meet the requirements noted above. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,164,840 discloses a garment fabric having at least one layer of a wire mesh therein for protecting against a high frequency electromagnetic field and U.S. Pat. No. 3,284,806 discloses a garment having external wire mesh for minimizing abrasion. U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,591 discloses a fabric made with water insoluble fibers coated with a lanthanum oxide, polytetrafluoroethylene mixture for radiation protection. U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,198 entitled, "Fabric for Micrometeoroid Protective Garment" addresses stitching fabrication techniques to preclude heat "shorts" through layers of garment construction but does not address the totality of extravehicular environment hazards protection.
A radiation control system for space suits utilizing rigid layers of high atomic number materials is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,153 and alternate rigid layers of low and high atomic number materials in a radiation control system for spacesuits are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,413. U.S. Pat. No. 2,328,105 discloses an X-ray shield including a layer of porous material in which particles of a substance opaque to X-rays is dispersed throughout the pores thereof and U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,142 discloses a multilayered textile for insulation against heat and cold which is manufactured from synthetic fibers including nylon, polyester fleece, and polyethylene terephthalate. U.S. Pat. No. 3,211,153 discloses an anti-electrostatic garment with wire mesh in a fabric layer and various chemical protection features in garment fabrics are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,547,765; 3,586,596; 3,292,179, and 4,675,228. However, a single comprehensive protection system for protecting against the multiplicity of hazards to be encountered in long duration space operations has been lacking.